Category: Study of Words

English has been around since the Middle Ages and it is an incredibly popular language, but it has a habit of picking up words and phrases from various other languages around the world. This leads to a plethora of crazy origins for some words. Some of the words will raise an eyebrow regarding their origin.

Quiz

This word is immensely attractive in the eyes of scholars or academicians, but it has its origins in Dublin. As part of a bet, a theatre owner from Dublin had to find a new English word every day. On one such a day, he came up with the word ‘quiz’ and it was seen as a test by people in Dublin. It soon became incorporated into the language.

Dunce

This derogatory word came into existence during the 13th century. It was introduced as a means to honor Scotus, who was a popular theologian and philosopher, and his followers. However, it soon became an expression of academic ineptitude because of the Renaissance discrediting the ideas of Duns. Soon, this word became an expression for outdated ideas.

Nightmare

Initially, this word was used to denote a female horse but it became associated with the ‘mare’ part due to German influences. In German, mare is used to refer to an evil spirit that can lead to bad dreams. More than just causing bad sleep, German folklore also believed that mare was responsible for riding throughout the night and causing exhaustion in the following day. This quickly transformed itself into the words nightmare in English.

Berserk

This word is used to denote a frenzied nature and they are symbolic of the former Norse warriors. Hence, the widespread consensus is that the ‘berserk’ word is associated with Norse words like ‘bjorn’ and ‘serkr’. They would translate into ‘bear’ and ‘coat’ respectively. It is also likely that the world could come from ‘berr,’ which is used to refer a soldier without armor.

Sandwich

A favourite lunchtime snack, sandwich got its name from John Montagu, who was the fourth goal of the sandwich. The idea of sandwiching beef between bread was thrown upon by this aristocrat during the 18th century. This quickly became his favorite meal –, especially while playing cards. Soon, the idea caught up on Montagu’s friends and it was eventually named after his title. Since it is a convenience food, it has been able to catch up on in different parts of the globe.

Quarantine

This word has its origins to the 14th century when the plague wiped out a huge part of Europe. A venetian dialect – “quaranta giorni," which roughly meant 40 days – was responsible for identifying the isolation enforced in Europe during the league.

Malaria

Malaria is believed to have originated in Rome, as medieval words in this region of Italy were used to denote ‘bad air’. They came up from the words ‘mal’ and ‘aria’ in this part of the country.

Groggy

This is used to denote a situation where a person is lethargic and sluggish. It has its roots in the 18th century when a sailor named Admiral Vernon was used to be known as the ‘Old Grog’ because of his clock. His decision to punish his sailors with diluted rum soon led to its current name of groggy.

Hazard

An Arabic word, ‘Al-Zahr,’ is used to denote the dice in some gambling games. Since there was a danger of losing money from gambling, this word became synonymous while denoting a dangerous element.

Clue

Greek mythology is responsible for throwing ‘clue’ into modern English. It is derived from ‘clew’ which is a yarn ball. This ball was given to Theseus in order to help in getting out of Minotaur’s labyrinth.

Genuine

The Latin word genuinus has given rise to genius. Unsurprisingly, this is a combination of two words – genu and knee. The Roman custom is all about placing the newborn child on the knee of a father in order to acknowledge the child’s paternity.

Ketchup

China is believed to have been a source of ketchup as early as in the 17th century. It started rising popularity around the world during the 18th century when Malaysia and Singapore had the first taste. Back then, it was known as the ‘kecap’ as it was a different way of pronouncing ‘kay-chap’.

Ostracise

This is a form of democracy that came about back in ancient Greece. Citizens were able to exercise their rights by working on several aspects of the government. Most citizens were in favour of the elections, which even allowed banishing of a certain individual. The ‘ostrakon’ came about and has led to ostracise.

Palace

This is once again an English word that has come about in Italy. The Seven Hills is a famous destination in Rome where the Emperor lived on a humongous home. The location of this home was on Palatine and it was used to refer the home rather than the hill. The word ‘palais’ in French is only used to denote a sprawling home and the fusion of these two ideas has led to ‘palace’ being used to refer the palatial homes, which are almost like palaces.

Researching positive words is always full of revealing interesting surprises. Each word holds his own secret once you know how to deconstruct the word. The secrets are in the written words itself. Here is a list of the hidden secrets of positive words. The list is updated constantly based on our continuous research and new discoveries. When we are referring to “word split source” we mean the source where we found the splitting of the word. The interpretations of the words are written by Positive Words Research if not otherwise specified.

Reconnect → re-connect → meaning connecting again → The source where I saw the split of the word is in an article written by Ioana G.

Understanding → under-standing → meaning standing under something so make sure you choose wisely what you want to understand (to stand under) → The source where I saw the split of the word is the audio program Love or Above of Christie Marie Sheldon.

Remember → re-member → become a member of something again → The source where I saw the split of the word is in an article written by Ioana G.

Disease – dis-ease → you have neglected ease in your life and your body is putting you on “forced zen” mode pushing you to look for your ease (to look for the ease of a certain organ in your body that you abused) → The source where I saw the split of the wor is in Louise Hay book “You can Heal Your Life”.

Gratitude in Romanian language is “recunostinta” which can be split in “re-cunostinta” which is translated in English with re-consciousness or re-notice or re-knowledge or re-conscious – which can be interpreted as becoming aware again of your higher consciousness which we human lose in the moment; gratitude makes you more conscious of the moment.

“pronoia” – definition and meaning

Pronoia is a neologism that is defined as the opposite state of mind to paranoia: having the sense that there is a conspiracy that exists to support you or any other person. It is also used to describe a philosophy that the world is set up to secretly benefit people.

The more you learn about the infinite connected universe the more pronoid you become…

“Once you make a decision the universe conspires to make it happen.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Why Positive Words Matter” is a resource of information from different articles/videos gathered at Positive Words Research in one article to support the statement that positive words actually matter and they matter a lot in sustaining our well-being and happiness.

How we do this: We gather as much information we can about the topic “Why Positive Words Matter?” and add in this article links (together with an excerpt) from other articles/videos that explain why words or positive words matter.

1. “Words Matter!” article published on 03/22/2016 on the website Huffington Post

Excerpt from this article:

“Let us change our mindset, our self-talk. We must start today to honor and appreciate all that we do well. Let us own our successes, our uniqueness, and embrace all our gifts and talents, our beauty, our health, happiness, and creativity…. . Let us start with the words: I AM… The two most powerful words. What we place after these, shape our beliefs and determine our destiny. Let us be mindful about the words we speak: “I am healthy. I am Blessed. I am brilliant. I am successful. I am loved. I am beautiful. I am sexy…" are some of the words that if we continue to speak over ourselves, will propel us to achieve self-confidence, regain our self-worth, and elevate our consciousness to levels that will take us to new heights and happiness that is beyond measure.”

You can also find at Positive Words Research two articles that give insights about the power of I AM: “I AM are two powerful words” and “Whatever follows I AM will come looking for you”

2. “Want to live longer? Think positively! People who believe they are healthy tend to outlive those who worry about how they feel.” article written on 29 February 2016 on the website Daily Mail (Mail Online)

Excerpt from this article:

How people perceive their health acts as a guide to how long they will live. Scientists found those who were more positive tended to live for longerHow easy activities like. How easy activities likehousework are can also be a indicator of life length. Researchers say it could help them screen out those in need of help

You can express your positive emotions with positive words, but you can also express your negative emotions, negating positive words. This way of thinking will make your brain happy and it is called positive thinking – thinking positively. This way of thinking is different than explaining positive emotions by negating negative words and explaining negative emotions with negative words. This way of thinking will make your brain unhappy and it is called negative thinking – thinking negative.

According to Positive Words Research, positive thinking means using positive words in your thoughts, either in affirmations or negations, in explaining your positive emotions or either in explaining your negative emotions.

It is scientifically proven that thoughts have a significant impact on ourselves and the reality around us. Thoughts even travel long distances in the entire universe, influencing matter. See the scientific works of Nassim Haramein and his contribution to the project The Connected Universe that has forever changed the course of world science.

We also know that a mature person mainly speaks with himself through thoughts formed of words. He thinks with images also but the inner dialog is frequently and constantly used by all adults.

It has been scientifically proven that positive words and negative words influence the structure of the water. See the groundbreaking scientific experiments and discoveries of Masaru Emoto:

It has also been scientifically proven that our body consists of more than 60% water. Because our body is composed of up to 60% water, the words that are closest to us influence us significantly. What other words can be closer to us than our own words?

It is scientifically proven that, through the mind of a mature person, is crossing almost 60,000 words ever day. This equals to a book. Every day, every one of us thinks an entire book. These are a lot of words.

Our own thoughts give us a certain disposition, emotion, vibration which influence the reality around us. We interact with the reality every moment, while we think. We think so that we can perceive. We think so that we can explain things to ourselves.

We call a brain that uses positive words in the thinking process a happy brain – the positive brain.

Therefore the “method” through which we construct sentences in our brain is very important. The words that you use to talk with yourself, when you explain things to yourself is highly important. Also, the words that you use to build sentences in your brain ultimately, overall, make you have a “happy brain” or an “unhappy brain”. The brain, as an organ, has the ability to process words and the brain is happy when he bathe in “positive words” (pays with positive words to construct sentences) and unhappy the other way around.

Negative words are hard, heavy for the structure of the brain, while positive words are lighter.

We call a brain that doesn’t use positive words in the thinking process an unhappy brain – the negative brain. You will see below why Positive Words Research considers that is not the use of negative words that makes a brain negative, it is the not using of the positive words that upset the brain so much.

Please see below a combination of words that a happy brain is processing in comparison with words that an unhappy brain is processing.

As a note: A happy brain makes you feel happy while an unhappy brain makes you feel… unhappy.

See below two examples of ways that a happy brain expresses himself versus how an unhappy brain expresses himself. Compare each word in each line. Compare the words that the happy brain is using, with the words that the unhappy brain is using. Both brains try to explain the same thing but with different words.

There are two examples to sustain this statement that reflect how the positive brain thinks versus how the negative brain thinks:

1. Explaining positive emotions

Happy Brain

I am peaceful/ I am happy/ I feel at ease/ I love you/ I have energy/ I am healthy.

Unhappy Brain

I am not anxious/ I am not sad/ I am not frustrated/ I don’thate you/ I am not tired/ I am not sick.

2. Explaining negative emotions

Happy Brain

I am not peaceful/ I am not happy/ I don’t feel at ease/ I don’t love you/ I don’t have energy/ I am not healthy.

Unhappy Brain

I am anxious/ I am sad/ I feel frustrated/ I hate you/ I am tired/ I am sick.

Note that in both the above examples the happy brain is using positive words to express himself and the unhappy brain is using negative words. The happy brain is a positive brain while the unhappy brain is a negative brain.

Conclusions

The happy brain – knows a lot of positive words also called abundance words (words that draw abundance). The unhappy brain – knows a lot of negative words also called lack words (words that keep the lack in your life).

The happy brain – due to “being used to thinking in a certain way” the person with a happy brain will be pushed by his brain to create sentences mainly with the vocabulary of positive words. The unhappy brain – due to “being used to thinking in a certain way” the person with a happy brain will be pushed by his brain to create sentences mainly with the vocabulary ofnegative words.

The happy brain – the person talks to himself mainly with sentences having positive words, he does not become conscious of the negative words, his brain is not noticing negative words in a text, talks less neutral because he likes to use positive words. The unhappy brain – The person talks to himself mainly with sentences with neutral words or negative words.

The happy brain – the person talks to others with sentences having positive words; the person does not notice negative words and does not feel the need to use so many neutral words. The unhappy person talks to others with sentences with neutral words or negative words. He also tries to how back himself from mentioning the negative words, which the person becomes aware of them a lot of times during a day.

The happy brain – the person understands life through his vocabulary of positive words. The unhappy brain – the person understands life through his vocabulary of negative words.

The happy brain – the person has knowledge of negative words but the words do not come to his brain to form sentences because the positive words occupy all of the main places in his brain. Positive words are always found in the active consciousness. The unhappy Brain – the person has very little knowledge of the vocabulary of positive words. When you give to the person a paper and a pen and ask him to write positive words, he is unable to come up with many words, he only knows a very limited number of positive words.

What matters for the brain, in feeling good, is to focus and think daily positive words. Not thinking positive words is significantly worse than thinking negative words.

To put it in a funny way, you can swear as much as you want but make sure to use positive words every day and you will be OK. Your brain will be happy!

During our experiments we also notice the following striking reality… on a not so funny note.

Some of the people don’t know the notion of positive words.

Most of the people know the notion of negative words but don’t know much about the notion of positive words.

Most people search on internet information about negative emotions, which are searched on Google using negative words, like depression, anxiety, hate, fear etc. And don’t think of looking on the internet for information about positive feelings and emotions, which are searched on Google using positive words, like compassion, loving-kindness, serenity. Even simple words like happiness, joy, beauty, magic, which could lift their spirit instantly are not searched by them, making them lack the necessary information to create their good vibe.

Other people don’t know that there are lists of positive words on the internet that they can explore.

Referring to the people that asked what positive words mean while being shown for the first time this list of positive words, they felt like they found an entire new happy world that they knew nothing about. Most probably so many positive words that also stand for many positive feelings and emotions made a huge impact on them.

Most of the people make a separation between negative words and positive words and consider them as being in opposite categories. They consider that one part implies the other part. They say that negative words imply positive words and positive words imply negative words. But how could their brain know to imply loving-kindness when they hate, how could hate imply loving-kindness, how could loving-kindness imply hate, when your brain is familiar with the word hate but is not familiar with the word loving-kindness, is not familiar with words like blessings, blissfulness, gratitude, appreciation, self-love etc. From where should these words come to you if you don’t put them in your brain? It should come from words like anxiety, tension, stress, horrible, tragic, sad?

Most people consider that by knowing a lot about depression, anxiety, fear, hate, tension, stress etc. they can eventually get rid of them and be happy. They don’t consider that they should stop researching depression and start researching happiness and other positive feelings like forgiveness, compassion, loving-kindness, peace of mind, equanimity etc. They are not aware that these positive feelings and emotions are keywords and that if they don’t know the name of the positive emotion, they have a gap and need to fill it by scanning a list of positive words.

Note: Currently, Positive Words Research is performing a research called “mapping positive words with negative words”. The main benefit for this mapping is to know which positive words are the precise antidote for negative words, therefore knowing which positive emotion is the antidote of negative emotion.

So why not using positive words is significantly worse than thinking negative?

You don’t know what positive feelings and emotions are out there in the world, you don’t know the potential of your human body. Positive words are keywords to attain well-being, keywords that you put in the Google search box to find and access information, keywords that you put in your brain to access your own well-being.